Immig: Moscow is safer
Lives in fear after he’s slashed by man he spots urinating at Village bldg.
A Russian immigrant stabbed in the stomach by a man he caught urinating against his Greenwich Village apartment building is now scared to make eye contact with strangers.
“I’ve become very nervous when I go around,” Artem, who didn’t want his last name published, told the Daily News. “New York has to do something about this.”
The NYPD has released surveillance images of the suspect, who remains on the loose.
Artem, 27, was heading out from his Downing St. apartment near Varick St. to run an errand about 4:10 p.m. last Wednesday when he heard a sound like “water pouring” from underneath the temporary scaffolding in front of his building.
He was without his glasses and so was squinting into the shady area beneath the scaffolding when he realized the sound was from a man using his building as a urinal.
“I’m trying to figure out what he’s doing, and three seconds after I realized he is actually peeing,” Artem said.
Police told The News the victim was stabbed after verbally confronting the attacker.
But Artem says he never uttered a word before the man began shouting homophobic slurs and then charged at him.
“I was just looking … he starts approaching me and he’s asking, ‘What are you looking at? Are you gay? Do you want to suck my d—k?’ ” Artem recounted.
The attacker rushed at Artem with what appeared to be a fistful of tissue paper and socked him once in the right side of his stomach, Artem said.
“I’m saying, ‘F—k off,’ and the same moment he pulls out some napkins from his pocket and he punches me in my stomach,” Artem said.
It was only after he retreated to his apartment that Artem’s girlfriend looked up from cooking to discover he was obviously wounded. It was Valentine’s Day and she was making a special meal.
“I just saw that he was completely covered in blood,” said Jaulie.
Despite the heavy bleeding, Artem’s wound was less than an inch wide, leading the couple to believe his attacker was wielding a makeshift weapon.
“It was like some shank, that’s why he was holding napkins,” Artem said. “It wasn’t a knife because the hole is very thin.”
An ambulance rushed Artem to Bellevue Hospital, where doctors were concerned his liver was nicked in the assault. Tests later revealed he’d suffered little more than a flesh wound, and he was discharged that night. His girlfriend had returned to New York from traveling the day before.
“We had planned this week of fun and the first day when she is officially here I got stabbed in front of my house,” Artem lamented.
Artem came to America to get his master’s degree in financial engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. He says he felt safer on the streets of Moscow than he does in New York and plans to keep his eyes to himself from now on.
“I’m definitely stressed, trying not to look at people,” he added.
The NYPD describes the suspect as slim with a medium complexion. He was wearing a blue vest over a black hoodie, gray pants and brown boots.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.